
A dark-brown glaze with buff-colored tortoiseshell markings covers the exterior of this small tea bowl. Reserved on the interior in reddish-brown glaze are three openwork panels of quatrefoil shapes, perhaps representing peony blossoms, set against a richly variegated buff glaze. The golden buff glaze crawled downward from the lip during firing creating a streaked and mottled effect on the interior. Archaeological evidence shows similar bowls to have been made at the Jizhou kilns at Yonghe in central Jiangxi province.